Sunday, February 10, 2019

Howdy to all my crafty friends! Thank you for stopping by today. I completed my next class in the Altenew Educator Certification program. This one is called Irresistible Inking Techniques. It is filled with several great ways to add ink to your projects. It was really hard to choose which one I liked the most! I decided to use stamp block inking as my main technique since I haven't done that more than once or twice before. I also used some direct to paper inking techniques. Check out this beauty!

Let me walk you through the steps of how I created this card.

First I cut a strip of Canson watercolor paper to 1 3/4" x 4 3/4". The width of my piece had been deteremined by the acrylic block I planned to use for the stamp block inking technique. My block measures 1 1/2" wide. I chose to use the four different shades of brown inks included in the Altenew Coffee Break mini ink cube set.

I started with Sand Dune. I just stamped it all over the block, spritzed it a few times with water and then laid it down on the watercolor paper. I applied pressure and held it there for a bit so the ink could soak into the paper. Then I pulled it off and dabbed up any excess water that I didn't want.

I stamped with the Sand Dune ink twice and worked my way through the other three colors until I had covered the strip of paper.

I set the strip aside to air dry. I moved on to the background. I cut another piece of watercolor paper down to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". I laid the Leaf Burst stencil on top and taped it to the paper. I do want to mention that I actually used the less textured side of the paper for this step. I had also tried it with the rough side but got a better result with the smoother side.

I squished the Rocky Shores ink cube down onto my craft mat several times. Then I sprayed it liberally with a pearl shimmer spray. I mixed it together and applied it lightly over the stencil with a flat watercolor brush. A round brush would work just as well. Here it is after I removed the stencil.

I used my heat tool to dry it so I could move on to the next step. I mixed a bronze metallic acrylic paint with water until it was thinner. Then I used a larger round brush to tap against a block to create a splatter all over the background. I did use a splatter box for this because I was really making a mess!

I just love the extra shimmer and interest it adds to the panel! I set it aside to dry. Next I had a couple thin strips of watercolor paper that I wanted to watercolor to match the other colors. I squished the Espresso ink pad on my craft mat and added water. I then painted the color onto two different strips. I wanted one to be darker than the other so I dried it and painted it again three times.

Now I went back to my original block watercolored piece. I went over it with anti-static powder first. Next I stamped one of the flowers from the Wonderland stamp set with Versamark ink. Then I sprinkled on a rose gold embossing powder and melted it with my heat tool.

The rose gold embossing powder just went so well with these colors! The inks are definitely brown when you stamp with them directly. It's when you add the water that the pink undertone really shines through!

Now to put it all together. I did go around the edges of the background panel with the Espresso ink before I glued it onto a white A2 sized card base. Next I cut the darker strip of watercolor paper to be shorter than the other one. I did cut it at an angle to give it a little more interest. I glued it close to the left side of the card. Then I glued the lighter strip on top of it. I went around the edges of the floral panel with the Sand Dune ink, applied foam tape to the back and glued it over the strips.

The sentiment also comes from the Wonderland stamp set. It was too big for the area I wanted to put it so I carefully cut it apart. I was then able to stack the sentiment instead. I stamped it using black Versafine ink. It's still my favorite black ink for dark and crisp black sentiments. For my finishing touch I added a couple of Copper Penny Nuvo drops to the floral panel. All done!

This finishes up all of my classes for level 1. Now I get to see what my challenge project will be! Eep! Thanks for stopping by today.

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Valentine's Day will soon be here and love is definitely in the air! I finished up an Altenew Academy class a bit ago and finally got time to make my card for the Altenew Educator Certification Program. The class is called Easy Die Cutting Techniques. This class contained some ideas I had seen before but tons of new ones that I'm going to have to try out soon. For my project I combined two different lessons. Embossing with dies and inlaid die cutting. I really love the look of both techniques.

The first thing I did was to cut a piece of Neenah 110lb white cardstock down to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". Then I picked out the die I wanted to use for embossing. I adore the Altenew Layered Cover dies so I chose to use Layered Floral Cover die A. I actually played around with my cutting machine until I found just the right sandwich. I was aiming for a lightly embossed look. It only took a couple trys until I found it!

Then I lighlty sprayed the entire panel with a mixture of water and Perfect Pearls to get a shimmering effect. Once it was dry, I cut out the word love with the Mega Love die. I love all of the mega word dies and think I own most of them! I cut the word out three more times out of the 110lb Neenah cardstock. I went ahead and glued the three plain layers together and set it aside.

Next I took my embossed love word and got inky! I used all four ink colors in the Tea Party mini cube set. I applied the ink using some fabulous blending brushes I recently purchased. I started with Pink Pearl on the E then worked my way towards the L, switching colors as I went. Once I got the blend I wanted I squished my Versamark ink pad along the bottom of the word. I then sprinkled silver embossing powder over it, shook off the excess and melted it with my heat tool. Now, this is gorgeous but I wanted to step it up a notch. I squished Versamark over the entire word. Then I sprinkled on clear Ultra Thick Embossing powder and melted it. I felt it needed more so I repeated the steps. Once it cooled down I glued it on top of the other layers I already glued together.

Back to the card panel. I trimmed off just the smallest bit from all four edges of the panel. I then adhered it to a dark grey card base. I laid the love die cuts back into the panel so I could glue in the white filler pieces. Once they were attached, I added glue to the love die cuts and put them back in place.

I felt the card needed a little bit more. I played around with adding the "you" sentiment from Mega Greetings 3 set but I wasn't loving it. So, I pulled out some sparkling clear sequins in assorted sizes and created a sort of waterfall effect on the card. I'm extremely pleased with how it turned out!

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Hey there everyone. I'm popping in with a super quick post for a card that I am entering in two different challenges. I have been enjoying the challenges and I feel like they push me to create outside some of my comfort zones!

I am linking up for the Freshly Made Sketches 372 #fms372. You can find the link up right HERE.

The second challenge I'm linking up to is Color Throwdown 527 #ctd527. You can find that link upHERE.

Sunday, January 20, 2019

Hi everybody! I've had a little bit of crafty drought so I thought I would participate in a few challenges. I figured it would help get my crafty mojo moving.

I am entering this in the Freshly Made Sketches challenge FMS371 and the Color Throwdown CTD526 challenge. You can find full details and the link up for the Color Throwdown right HERE. You can find all the details and the link up for the Freshly Made Sketches right HERE.

I had a lot of fun playing along! I hope that my crafty mojo kicks into high gear.